Professor Malory Nye of Dundee’s Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies is taking his family off for Christmas with a difference this year.
He is swapping the delights of a dreich December in Dundee for the sun-kissed sands of Dubai thanks to a cultural exchange that took place earlier this year.
Professor Nye holds the Chair of Multiculturalism, Islam and Muslims in the UK at the Institute and is also the Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Muslims in Scotland.
During the summer the Al-Maktoum Institute played host to a group of female students who are all studying at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates.
It was the first summer school to be held at the Blackness Road campus and was rated a great success.
As a result of that visit Professor Nye was invited to spend a month in the UAE over Christmas by the President of Zayed University, Professor Hanif Al-Qassimi.
The Professor, his wife Alex and daughters Micah (9) and Martha (6) will be living in Dubai during their stay.
Professor Nye said: “We are all really looking forward to the trip. I will be meeting up with many of the students who came to Dundee earlier this year and will be giving public lectures at the two Zayed University campuses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I will also be discussing the possibility of organising a second summer school for Zayed students next year and in addition will be visiting the UAE University at Al-Ain and the newly established British University in Dubai.”
Professor Nye’s lectures will cover a range of subjects including multiculturalism, Islam and Muslims in the West, Islam in the modern world and the state of culture and religion.
